Question of the Week: 86 - 11/24/2002How’s Your Gratitude Attitude?It has been a rough couple of years in this world of ours. Wars and terrorist threats make the news every day. You seem to run into every cranky person on the planet. You think that your phone might be tapped -- or soon will be -- or really should be. Your family is a little less than Brady Bunch perfection and the holidays haven’t even reached full swing yet and already you have run out of money and gained ten pounds. (You know where!)

Has your 'gratitude attitude' taken a big hit of late? Or are you still the poster child for the ‘Every cloud has a silver lining’ platform? How do you maintain an attitude of -- or develop an aptitude for -- thanksgiving when the going gets rough?

Even though I'm going through some rough times; my husband lost his job, we've been forced to file for bankruptcy; I still find much to be thankful for. I'm very thankful to be alive right now, able to sit at my computer and type this. I'm thankful for my family, even though we don't see eye to eye. I'm thankful for my friends; those that I have are treasured. I'm thankful for my "little girl" Madison. I'm thankful that I live in a country where I can visit this website and freely add my thoughts without fear of being arrested and locked away indefinitely for my views and beliefs. I'm thankful that there's a roof over my head and that I never want for food. I'm thankful for the many wonderful blessings of the Goddess; may Her blessings abound on those less fortunate than me.

I'm thankful for today.Looking out my window watching the leaves fall as they dance in the wind just before they hit the ground.Feeling the warmth of the sun's rays pire throe my window,as it lites up my face.A face ,a place that is home for a smile.it's sure good to be home....i use to be homeless with my four children walking the streets never knowing where to sleep or what we were going to eat.i'm thankful for today ...remember yesterday is history tomrrow is a myistry and TODAY is a gift thats why it's called THE PRESENT....LIGHT and LOVE to all that want it... Flame

I have had good fortune in my life, and little hardship. My spouse is a wonder, and my girls were a dream to raise. I have a country home in a small town with good friends. I was guided to and along my path from early childhood.I am at peace with the gods.Do I hit bumps in the road? Of course, do they derail my life? Not yet.Do I fear phone tapping, spying, or the wild eyes of the inquisition? No. There will always be crazies and there will always be intolerance.I look past the screamers in the news, and find the real people in the real world amazing and wonderful.For these and many other things I am thankful.

ok so i have this pretty crummy job, and i really really want a change... and two of my best friends turned me down, which was rather painful... and i'm so terribly out of money... and my mum and me, who seemed finally to get back to our former level of intimacy, have drifted apart once more...

still. i have friends besides the two who let me down. really good ones, too. i carry them in my heart, as i know they carry me in theirs.i don't have a husband or boyfriend but i'm having a good time anyway.after years of being depressed and frantic i have finally come to safer, steadier ground. i'm still all for going to playgrounds, i love to go sit on a swing and pretend that i can fly.there's this apple tree in my street; whenever apples have fallen from it, i can take them home and bake apple pie. when i go to a park, i can lie down and feel mother earth carrying me.when i feel lost, i can close my eyes and think of the sea, and there's always a beacon there to help me get back to the shores of myself. i'm not afraid of drowning anymore.

i'm thankful for the wonderful people around me that made me see the light CAN be spread if you shine your own. no matter how small, every little candle adds to the lightness of the whole.

i could go on, but basically what i want to say is that i've got the feeling i'm at last starting to celebrate and embrace my life here and now, instead of just dream about the hereafter. so i guess my thanks go out to whatever force is helping me and making the struggle less harsh and more worthwhile. i'm thankful that i can enjoy the little things, and i'm thankful that i can feel the zest adding up in me to start enjoying the bigger things as well.

Healing from old wounds and mourning for what was lost has freed me to deal immediately with new pain and grief. This has been a wonderful and unexpected gift. My energy is no longer bound to the past, but can be used to help me cope with current difficulties.

I lost a beloved companion animal in July and am in the process of losing two more over the course of the next couple of months. A fourth may also be leaving within the next year. I cannot replace them. But I can tell you that I am humbly grateful to have shared my life with them for the last six and a half years, to have learned so much about love from them, and to have the honor of helping them during their last days of life. I am grateful to have them as teachers in the mystery of death. I am also grateful that I can feel this pain and grief. It is the greatest gift I have ever received. It really is the gift of life.

Every moment I spend with my ferrets is precious to me. When they have all left me I will have to learn how to live without them. It is that gift of pain that will guide me as I navigate through the grief, because I know the other face of this coin is joy. I'll always have them in my heart now that it is no longer crowded with old wounds. For this I am grateful.

I'm so very thankful for the love of my life...he keeps me focused. My family, even though we could be poster people for dysfunction...I love them dearly. For the wonderful people who "decorate" my life...thank you.

we get into fights and have serious disagreements about things, she is a christian and i am a witch, she is more conservative than i, she doesnt like guns, she wants to cut down the sycamore tree in our back yard, she frets about her hair too much, she says i wear weird shoes, she thinks i have too much clothing, she drinks to cope, she replaced my dog's bed basket with a new one which he doesnt like. but she is perfect. i cant think of anything else to be particularly grateful for at the moment, except perhaps moderately good health, and my beast of a familiar, but if im only able to be grateful for my mom, thats a hell of a lot of gratitude, i can tell you.

I had my grandpa around for almost 26 years. He died in june. But with all the pain of the lose there is a lot of graditute that he whas there for so long. My grandpa whas one of those silent types. When something had to be done... he just did it...he helped you when you needed it even when he didn't agree with your actions. He whas one of those persons that where just around. No big opinions... no politics talk so common in my family. Last time I saw him I fed him his dinner. He whas not able to speak, he whas not able to write or point. But we understood eigother and he whas there. We held hands for two hours or so and I sit with him on his bed.

The love he gave me is endless. The sparkel in my eyes I have when pulling a joke on somebody is from him. I whas gratefull to have him for so long, I burried him with a smile on my face and tears in my eyes. Some kids are daddy's or mommy's little girl. I whas grandpa's girl.

There is so much to be thankful for.. And Unthankful for right now.I'm thankful for.......being alive (its a great feat for everyone)...(some *wink*) family (Poster child for DYSfunCtionAl FaMily)...My friends. Those who i have met, hopefully will meet irl soon, and those yet to be met or thought of....music. Life isn't worth living without it. And it doesn't matter if everyone can't hear it, we all have our own inner Mariachi band *grin*

Just thinking of those things makes me happy. Infact, I had a pretty lousy day and listing those did a wonderful thing.

I think everyone should take a few moments to refelct on things.

Then maybe, we all can work on fixing the negative. Not that everything has to be perfect, but, a bit happier for all (or most however you see it)

I do see silver linings, and I have always been an optomist. I can't plan for tomorrow, not a day ahead and sometomes not an hour ahead. The reasons are many. I am watching my father slowly decline in health as I care for him. I see my wife struggling against termainal cancer. But I am the optomist.I have lost friends from the past who now try to find me, I have new friends of the present and will have friends in the future. I am thankful that I have that. I do all I can every day to help, and I am thankful I have the health to continue helping. I cry at nite for the friends I am losing, but there is a purpose in everything that has ever happened around me.It will just be tomorrow when I learn that purpose, some tomorrow.Are my thoughts too narrow? Destrucion throughout the world beyond me? No, I feel that pain, and wonder what I can do. I am grateful no one has destroyed my life, but do not fear it. I fear most the loss of freedoms and maybe the loss of choices on how I live my life day to day, hour by hour. I fear governments becoming their own religion. But there is always tomorrow.

The Lady and Lord have blessed me with a very wonderful friend, Herb. We are so close even though I am in Pennsylvania and he is in Nebraska. We talk lots (I am also very thankful for my prepaid phone card *grin*) and even talking to him (be that online or over the phone) makes me so happy. A small void in my heart has been filled and words can not truly express how much he truly means to me. He rescued me from loneliness and despair. In a time of great stress, he was there to talk me through it and just be there for me. Thank you Herb and thank you Blessed GOddess and God for leetign him touch my soul so deeply.

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